Wood Dragon Style
Followers of the Wood Dragon are mysteries among the mysterious. All Immaculates are curiosities for their dedication and their great power, but Wood Dragon Style practitioners exemplify the strangeness that follows Dragon-Blooded monks, often even to their fellows. Their training is no small part of this perception: Immaculates of Wood go far to understand the extremes of life and death, participating in both food and water deprivation and glut- tony, and most also consume absurd quantities of hallucinogenic drugs while seeking the purity of Sextes Jylis. To observers, Wood Dragon Style is not a particularly deadly or effective style. Immaculates who practice it rarely fell their opponents in a single strike or send their opponents fleeing a storm of blows. Yet, they win their combats nonetheless. With the power they hold over the ﬂow and ebb of life through Creation, the wise fear them. An Immaculate of Wood fires her signature weapon, the bow, with deadly accuracy. Their training teaches them to fire backward, with the bow vertical or horizontal, from the saddle or while lying down, among others. When an Immaculate masters Wood Dragon Form, she usually constructs her own bow as a part of a ritual. Those who can construct powerbows often do so for their comrades. When using her signature weapon, an Immaculate of the Wood Dragon adds two to its Damage bonus and 25 yards to its Range. This style may be practiced while in armor. ''' ''EYES OF THE WOOD DRAGON'' Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 4) Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Special Prerequisite Charms: None The Wood Immaculate is master of the patterns that govern life and survival. By using this Charm to examine a single foe, the Dragon-Blood finds that foe’s weakest points. After invoking this Charm, the Immaculate must successfully attack his target within his five next actions or the Charm ends with no effect. On a successful attack, the Immaculate adds her Essence as separate damage dice. This extra damage bypasses armor but may be soaked by Stamina and other sources of Hardness normally. This attack affects immaterial spirits as if they had materialized. Also, this Charm is only effective against living beings—automata and the dead do not bear the life paths that this Charm uses. ''MIND-OVER -BODY MEDITATION'' Cost: 2m per hl; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 5) Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Eyes of the Wood Dragon Followers of the Wood Dragon master the ﬂ ow of life within their own bodies early in their training, healing minor wounds and bruises with ease by focusing wood Essence on that location to improve healing. For every two motes spent, the Immaculate heal one level of bashing damage that she has suffered. ''WOOD DRAGON VITALITY'' Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 7) Keywords: Combo-OK, Leader Duration: One action Prerequisite Charms: Mind-over-Body Meditation Immaculates see the Wood Dragon as more than the font of life in Creation—they also see its exemplar as a warrior without peer who can use the power of the trees to shield himself. After activating this Charm, the Immaculate adds his Martial Arts rating to his bashing soak and soaks lethal damage with his full Stamina until his next action. ''SOUL-MARKING STRIKE'' Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Stackable, Touch Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Wood Dragon Vitality To enact this Charm, the Immaculate need only touch her opponent, nothing heavier than a caress, and spend the Essence. The target feels a sharp pain in his head, but nothing more. In combat, touching a target thus requires a successful attack. For the remainder of the scene, the Immaculate gains an automatic success on any attack she makes against a target who has been branded. Multiple soul mark effects are cumulative. Soul marking is especially painful to spirits—as painful as a real brand is to mortals. In addition to the other effects, this Charm endows spirits with a (cumulative) -1 internal penalty due to the searing pain that refuses to go away. For 24 hours after branding a target, the Immaculate can sense the direction to any being she has branded. The Immaculate adds a number of dice equal to her Essence to attempts to track such a subject, or she gains the ability to take part in a supernatural tracking contest. When such a being is within a number of yards equal to the martial artist’s Essence, the martial artist can tell approximately where, and which being, it is. This Charm has the crippling keyword when applied to spirits. ''WOOD DRAGON FORM'' Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5) Keywords: Form-type, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Soul-Marking Strike Striking his own body in a series of precise, quick blows, the Immaculate removes all blocks on the ﬂ ow of wood Essence through his frame. Even the tiniest misplacement of one such strike causes the Charm to fail. Thereafter, the Dragon-Blood almost glows with life, and green Essence sometimes ﬂ ashes in his eyes or trails behind his body as he moves. While Wood Dragon Form is active, the Immaculate regenerates one health level of bashing damage on every action and one health level of lethal damage every other action. If the monk is slain, the Charm ends, and he stops regenerating. ''UNBREAKABLE FASCINATION KATA'' Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious Duration: Varies Prerequisite Charms: Wood Dragon Form The motions associated with this Charm resemble both the way vines grow up trees in the Southeastern jungles and the movements of Southern snakes. So mesmerizing are the Immaculate’s katas that she transﬁxes her opponents, rooting them to the spot. The character’s player rolls her (Charisma + Martial Arts + Essence) against the Dodge MDVs of all who can see her clearly. As long as the Immaculate continues to exercise the kata, those whose MDVs were not hardy enough become inactive as they do nothing other than stare at her with rapt fascination. While executing the kata, the Immaculate may speak, move at half pace or dodge with a -2 DV penalty. Any other action ends the Charm. Wood Immaculates often use this Charm to close with an opponent before attacking. This Charm exerts unnatural mental influence which costs 2wp to resist for a scene. ''ENTHRALLING BLOW ATTACK'' Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Obvious, Touch Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Unbreakable Fascination Kata Certain pressure points cause a subject to relax uncontrollably, momentarily losing all motivation to move or act. If the Immaculate makes a successful Martial Arts attack on his target, his player does not roll damage. Instead, add the Exalt’s Essence to the number of successes on the attack (before reduction from DV). Should this value top the target’s MDV, the target is enthralled and becomes inactive for a number of actions equal to the Charm’s extra successes. In subsequent actions, the target’s player can attempt to have the target shake off the effects by rolling (Willpower + Integrity) at a difficulty of (1 + the successes rolled by the Immaculate’s player on the opposed roll). This Charm works only on living creatures. This Charm exerts unnatural mental influence which costrs 3wp to resist for a scene. This resistance supersedes the rules given above. ''SPIRIT-WRACKING METHOD'' Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supple- mental Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Wood Dragon Form When combating a spirit, the Wood Immaculate’s understanding of spirit Essence allows her to channel her own Essence through an attack into the spirit. Once there, that Essence blossoms and grows, temporarily disrupting the spirit’s form. On a successful Martial Arts attack that inflicts at least one level of damage, the Immaculate’s player makes a reflexive (Essence + Martial Arts) roll against a difficulty equal to the spirit’s permanent Essence. The spirit loses a number of dice from all actions equal to the roll’s threshold. This penalty fades at the rate of one die per action the spirit takes. This Charm is able to strike immaterial spirits. ''SPIRIT-RENDING TECHNIQUE'' Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5) Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Wracking Method As a thin vine grows along a wall and inevitably destroys it, the Immaculate is able to tighten his Essence around a spirit-foe and tear its core to shreds. On a successful attack against a spirit, the Wood Immaculate does not inflict damage normally. Instead, her player rolls her (Essence + Willpower) at a difficulty of the spirit’s Essence. Success indicates that the spirit suffers aggravated damage equal to 1 + (threshold successes/spirit's Essence, rounded down). Spirits reduced to Incapacitated by such an attack are permanently destroyed. ''DEATH -PATTERN SENSING ATTITUDE'' Cost: 0m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-Basic Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Wood Dragon Form Attuning herself to the pattern of souls around her, her mastery over wood Essence allows her to also detect the patterns of death—death that has occurred, or death that impends. For the rest of the scene, the Immaculate may reflexively spend a single mote to ignore all penalties to her Dodge DV against a single attack. She may do so no more than a number of times equal to her Essence between actions. She can dodge attacks only by beings that possess a spirit, however (including most undead). She cannot dodge traps, falling rocks or attacks by automata. Finally, she cannot dodge ranged attacks made from beyond a radius equal to her Essence in yards. Paying 1m to use this Charm's benefit does not count as a Charm activation or require commitment of Essence. ''WOOD DRAGON SUCCOR'' Cost: 3m per hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5, -2 DV) Keywords: Obvious, Touch Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Death-Pattern Sensing Attitude The Immaculate uses this meditation technique to absorb others’ wounds into his own body, where he can then heal them. All the Dragon-Blood must do is touch the injured subject and temporarily merge their Essences. The target then heals one health level for every three motes the Immaculate spends, and the wounds immediately appear on the martial artist’s body. Such a gracious act is not without its “reward,” and the Immaculate immediately suffers the appropriate wound penalties. Wood Immaculates can, of course, heal those injuries with Wood Dragon Form or Mind-over-Body Meditation, unless the wounds are aggravated. ''SOUL MASTERY''''' Cost: 10m, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (-2 DV) Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping, Touch Duration: (Essence) actions Prerequisite Charms: Enthralling Blow Attack, Spirit-Rending Technique, Wood Dragon Succor The highest mastery of Wood Dragon Style, this Charm is little more than a legend to most, even other Dragon-Blooded Immaculate monks. Few who see the Charm active live to tell others, because the perfect alignment of a Wood Immaculate with the forces of life gives her the power to completely and utterly end it. After activating this Charm, a swirling, sizzling green-black aura lingers on the Immaculate’s hands for a number of actions equal to his Essence. During that time, the Immaculate must successfully touch her target, either casually (if her victim is not expecting an attack) or as part of a hand-to-hand attack that inflicts normal damage. Once she does so, the Immaculate’s player makes a reflexive (Essence + Martial Arts) roll against the opponent’s (Stamina + Resistance). If the target loses, his soul becomes completely dissociated from his body, instantly killing him. Even if he wins, the attack still inflicts dice of aggravated damage equal to the Immaculate’s Essence. In addition to its effects on living creatures, spirits with a permanent Essence lower than or equal to that of the Immaculate are even more susceptible to Soul Mastery. Should the Immaculate strike such a spirit, her wrath rips its Essence asunder, permanently destroying it. Gods and elementals can sense the presence of Exalted who have mastered this Charm, and they fear them intensely. Soul Mastery is harsh on the Immaculate. Beyond the considerable toll it demands, an Exalt must unleash the power on a target lest it destroy her own soul. Failure to discharge the effect on another target within the time allotted by the Charm forces the Immaculate to resist its effects herself. Aggravated damage inflicted by this Charm bypasses armor.